PortlySpartacus

...and I have also heard stories of Diamond members that gained status thru the Diamond challenge, kept it for 1-2 years, then lost the status. Then in the subsequent year, entered the Diamond challenge and were accepted back in the program.

If this is true, then I don't really need to hustle next calendar year to complete the 50 nights, again. I can enjoy Diamond for all of 2015 and then in 2016, set myself up to do another challenge and return to the program.

kmcbrid2

but it is those 4 DSU that might bring some back to a hyatt hotel later on?

So if I recall from my hyatt challange, you still get the 4 DSU's even if you don't complete the 12 nights. So this means that someone might have 2-3 DSU still left after their one trageted stay with Hyatt.

This is exactly what happened to me, I did complete the challange but was only able to use 1 DSU during my 12 nights challange. I have a stays in SIN next month and HK in Dec. Before I completed my challange I was planning on using my SPG suite upgrades, which I still have this year as SPG PLT, at the Sherton SIN and Sherton Hong Kong. I'm now targeting SIN GH and Hong Kong GH becuase I would rather use my DSU at these two properties eventhough they are far more expensive than the SPG properties.

Additionally, I'm now planning a trip to Da Nang in Feb just so I can try and use my last DSU there. I had no plans on going to Vietnam until I saw their was Hyatt resort in Da Nang.

So Hyatt has taken all of this Business from my primary hotel (SPG) becuase of the DSU's eventhough I have suite upgrades to burn with SPG. This is becuase I value the suite upgrades with Hyatt at these locations higher than my SPG upgrades (if I can get them to clear) even though I'm paying a higher rate. It also helps I have already requal for PLT this year so it was easy to redirect my business to Hyatt.

Now I'll admit I'm new to Hyatt and maybe after I'm not able to use the DSU for these stays and have trouble using my 4 new DSU's in 2015 I might agree that Hyatt shouldn't give 4 DSU for the challange.

But I think those extra DSU have more than paid-off for Hyatt in my case.

exmike

You could. Or you could actually become a Hyatt loyalist.. and apparently Hyatt gains enough of these to make the program worthwhile to them.

1fan

I switch to Hyatt as my main Hotel because of this challenge. I use Credit card status as fill for the other chains

Windward Side of Life

Nonsense, no one who takes and completes the challenge, whether seriously intending to move business or simply trying to exploit an opportunity, is "loyal" to any program or they would never have left/added to their original program to begin with. Everyone on it is doing it because from where they're looking the grass is greener on the other side. No one's a loyalist, we're all opportunists. Sure, there might be a honeymoon stage where the individual thinks Hyatt hung the moon, but time will pass and when other opportunities present themselves the straying will commence. The only loyalists are those that have not yet found an opportunity to hook up with someone better. Or those too foolish to see the truth.

But you'll think you're loyal because you're only looking Hyatt's way, blissfully ignoring the other comely beauties and your past favorite flings for the time being. Then a couple years will pass and what was once so beguiling about Hyatt will become presumed; her graces will no longer thrill you like they once did and her touch will cool just a bit. Instead you'll find that her little surprises and delights begin to irritate you. You'll mostly overlook it the first time it happens, because you two have history and all. But after the second time you'll start to wonder if it's a pattern, if she really cares about you as much as you've blindly believed. Then you'll start reading about her luring newcomers into her fold, gleefully throwing more of herself at them than she does at you; you who have invested so much of yourself into this long faithful relationship. You see her lower her standards for them, but not for you, and you'll start to burn. You don't really resent the new guys, hey you know how guys are after all and you were once there yourself. But still you start to resent her, that damn bewitching Hyatt with a short leash on your traveling soul and a firm upper hand in the relationship.

Then one day you'll have a sudden urge to meet her at that special place, you know, the one where she looks so beautiful in that certain light. You picture her waiting for you there with a bottle of wine in her hand, a cheese platter on a side table in your favorite suite. You can see the languorous late breakfasts spent lingering over lover's happy chatter while waves wash up on the shore and wind blows through the palms just over to the left. So you'll call her up, excitement building as the line rings. But she'll say she's sorry, she's already meeting someone there. And inside a part of you dies, and you know it's one of those new guys; younger, fresher, quicker. So you'll be driven to start looking around again yourself; looking for someone new and enticing. Someone with a warm touch and a sympathetic place to lay your head. Someone that will lower her standards for you and allow herself to be easily taken advantage of.

angatol

.....

exmike

Bravo!

suite2suite

Well said.
Now, some of us have tears coming down our cheeks.

3rdworldresident

Totally agreed!!!

taipeiflyer

The post had absolutely NOTHING to do with not being able to use a DSU. It had everything to do with this post in the PH Maldives thread as well as multiple similar posts in the andaz Maui thread that resulted in the erosion of benefits. MANY people who sign up for the challenge have zero intention of staying at a Hyatt except on a one-off family vacation yet are receiving elite benefits they should not be entitled to:

LIH Prem

So what? "not entitled to" is your judgement call, isn't it?

They are actually entitled to anything Hyatt/GP is willing to give them.

I find it very funny whenever people here get upset because of promotions that didn't target them or things like this, that in the grand scheme of things don't really make any difference at all.

I think that Hyatt/GP is entitled to market their program anyway they see fit.

You should always evaluate the benefits of the program as they apply to you and use that to determine if you should stay with this program or go for a different one.


And BTW, I was a diamond leading into 9/11, and fell back to Plat for several years after, choosing to concentrate my status at SPG, which at the time, I felt was a better program. But several years ago, Hyatt/GP improved their program and I used a Diamond Challenge to get Diamond benefits earlier than I would have. At the end of the Diamond Challenge, I failed to get the number of stays/nights required for the challenge, but I did have 25 stays. I haven't looked back since then.

Sure there are always going to be some people that take advantage of the Diamond challenge just for a single stay or to get Diamond benefits for a short period of time, but why shouldn't they? I'm sure Hyatt/GP has the statistics and they know what the ratio is and how much they benefit as a company by offering this or any other promotion. It's up to them to market their program as they see fit.

-David

hailstorm

You throw around words like "should" as though you were entitled to make that decision.

As Chester L. Karass says, you don't get what you deserve in life, you get what you negotiate. If someone makes the effort to find and apply for this promotion, then they've earned it.

The fact that Hyatt, with far more data on the matter than you will ever have, has continued this promotion for years is proof that they are seeing continued benefits from the arrangement as well.

If you are not satisfied with your own benefits...try harder.

angatol

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PortlySpartacus

...and we are also making assumptions that Hyatt has access to the data and is making data based decisions around the Diamond challenge and frequency of those members to actual "earn" status the following year. The other possibility is that this 'issue' of fake Diamonds taking advantage of the challenge is such a low priority in the grand scheme of Hyatt's overall business that they simply don't give a rats ....

Either way, I don't really care. The fact that Hyatt has kept this program in place year after year means its working...why mess with a good thing when they most likely have more important things to worry about.

MSPeconomist

If Hyatt has been running the challenge this way for years, this means that they probably don't have the data that would enable them to identify if it were a bad idea. Verification would require doing experiments with not allowing people to keep DSUs after failing the challenge, offering fewer DSUs during the challenge, etc. and seeing how these features affect the mix of "challengers" that Hyatt attracts.